Show your 'Metal'
by LRDMtmnt
Summary: Donatello has always been a source of stability to his team. But while battling sickness and a sudden inferiority complex - will the brainy turtle hinder or hurt his worried brothers?
1. Chapter 1

**This story is based in the 2007 Movie Universe with a bit of the comic books thrown in for fun. In the timeline, this story comes after the movie. Everything is right again in the world but there is still some tension in the family unit. (Of course there's tension… fanfiction wouldn't exist unless there was always the possibility of tension.. who wants to read about the turtles having a nice relaxed vacation in Cyprus?)**

**I really enjoyed the 2007 movie and as it was very Leo and Raph centric, I thought that if there was ever a sequel – it would be about Donny and Mikey. So here is my idea.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the turtles. **

It was just another Friday night. The turtles had been out scouting the rooftops of New York, as usual, making sure everything was as it should be.

Just another night where he and his brothers bounced around, sparred and enjoyed the night air. Donatello loved being above ground with his brothers. It did annoy him, however, how they seemed to be more naturally athletic than him. It wouldn't have mattered if they were humans.. but they were Teenage Mutant Ninja turtles and 'Ninja' was what they did. But he never complained. It was just one of those things. He knew better than anyone how genetics worked, especially in animals. He was the literal 'runt of their litter.'

"Okay everyone, go to the equally distanced starting points we agreed on and we'll see who can make it back here first," ordered Leonardo in his 'leader' voice.

"How are we going to know when to start, oh fearless one?" sneered Raphael in his 'you are not as smart as you think you are' voice. Leonardo and Raphael had a much better relationship these days but as Mikey liked to say 'you can take the turtle out of the fight, but you can't take the fight out of the turtle.' The two eldest brothers still bickered on a regular basis but it was brotherly and ..well… normal. Donny even thought that it helped bring out the best in the two turtles. After all, they were perfect opposites of each other, like ying and yang. What one lacked, the other made up for.

"I will give a signal," explained Leonardo. "You'll know it when you hear it."

"No, that's not fair!" whined Michelangelo. "Raph will start early, he's a cheater."

"Are you kidding me!" burst Raph in disgust. "I think we all know who the cheater is in this team."

Michelangelo feigned hurt at this remark but Donny knew as well as the other brothers that Mikey had less respect for sportsmanship than anyone on the planet.

"Don't worry," laughed Donny. "I installed a GPS tracker on everyone's belt buckle so I'll know exactly who cheats and who doesn't."

"Really?" asked an amazed Michelangelo poking suspiciously at the 'M' buckle in question.

"Oh yes, it uses heat signatures and vital signs in relationship to the environment to detect exactly where you go within the city limits," continued Donatello, trying to use as much technical jargon in the sentence as possible.

All Mikey could respond with was a wide-eyed "Woooah," while his three older brothers laughed quietly under their breath. They knew Don had just made it up to keep everyone happy. That was just one of his many roles – peacekeeper.

"Alright fellas," let's get this started. The turtles dissolved into the shadows to find their starting marks. As they were waiting for Leonardo's signal, it started to rain.

"Oh great," muttered Donatello to himself. He was very much an indoors turtle when it came to physical health. If he could live inside a bubble he would. He hated how easily his body caught sicknesses. And this challenge was going to be tough enough as it was. Nevertheless, Donny planned to give it his all.

Suddenly, the sound of a Eurasian Eagle-Owl whistled through the wet, night air.

'That had to be the signal,' thought Donny. 'They don't live in the Americas… wait a second.. when did Leo become an expert on owls?' Donny realised he was wasting time and launched himself from the satellite dish he had been sitting in. He bounced across the skyline, using his bo staff to make the extra-long jumps. He thought he saw another shape in the distance but he ignored it. He used window ledges, cables and sometimes loose bricks to descend the buildings until finally; he made it back to the meeting point.

To Donatello's dismay, all his brothers were already there. He tried to hide his disappointment. It happened so often he thought he'd be used to it by now. But he never was, and it was always awkward.

"Glad you could join us Brainiac," laughed Raph. "Did you stop to admire someone's TV?" Donatello laughed good-naturedly on the outside but inside felt a sense of shame.

"Don't worry Donny," reassured Leo, you were only a few seconds behind and I'm sure you had the hardest route. Leo patted him on the shell which in many ways made it worse. Donatello felt himself tense up in awkwardness and desperately searched for a way to change the subject.

His body decided to do it for him when he suddenly let out a mighty sneeze.

"It's raining," Donny said. "We should head back."

"Wow, you really are a genius," laughed Mikey sarcastically, leading everyone back to the lair.


	2. Chapter 2

Once the turtles returned home, little did they know that their normal Friday was about to become very abnormal. The turtles ordered pizza, as was their Friday tradition, but Donatello exhaustedly and uncharacteristically refused a second slice and gave it to his little brother instead.

"Aren't you hungry Don?" asked Michelangelo with concern. Raphael and Leonardo were fighting as usual over 'where Raphael went wrong in training' and 'how it wasn't wrong but better than Leonardo could ever pull off'...

"No thanks, Mikey," answered Donatello. "I'm just going to sit down for a while."

"Do you feel sick?" continued Michelangelo with suspicion in his blue eyes. Donatello hadn't really thought about it but now it had been brought to his attention, he did feel a little strange. His head felt heavy and his insides were slightly nauseated. He would keep it to himself though; he wasn't going to show more weakness than he had to tonight.

"No, I'm fine," replied Donatello eventually. "Just need to chill out for a bit."

"Yeah, I know what you mean," confided Michelangelo. "After training, I love to just sit and watch a bad movie while reading a good comic book."

"Exactly," chuckled Donatello fondly. "We all just need to unwind." Trying to ignore his now pounding headache, Donatello walked the short route to his lab.

The lab was where Donatello belonged. This was where Donatello made himself worthy of the team. Donatello breathed a sigh of relief as he sank into his comfortable desk chair with a tumbler of coffee in his hand that would last him a few good hours at least. He didn't have to patrol again until that night so he had a few hours to work on his machines and sleep. Well… probably just work on his machines.

He reached out for his current project and held it delicately in his turtle hands. The metal was cool and tingled slightly to the touch. It wasn't anything too fancy, just a new silicon based compound he'd been mixing, shaped crudely like a metallic lump of clay. He planned to use it repairing armour on their various battle vehicles whenever they got damaged, which they inevitably did on a regular basis.

None of his brothers would ever understand the wonder Donatello felt when he played with electric currents, data chips, control signals, metallic substances or even simple engineering. But to Donatello it all led to unlimited possibilities. Any problem could be fixed with a well-designed gadget and Donatello had built those in the hundreds.

Donatello started to play with his new silicon, metallic substance, or, as he liked to call it 'Turtilium.' He melted it down, ran some tests, dry iced it and melted it again. Just watching how the bonds changed and reacted was fascinating to Donny. But, then a sad thought occurred to him. Nothing he ever made would compensate for his physical weaknesses….. or could it.

"If this could be applied to other metals… what else could it….." Donatello mused. Suddenly, his brainwaves were interrupted by a shrill noise that made Donatello jump to attention. As he struggled to find his cell phone a wave of dizziness came over him and he couldn't see the screen properly when he held it up to his face. He answered it anyway and sank to the floor.

"Hello," he asked into the speaker through gritted teeth.

"Donnny…. I… can't….. it's ….. help!" That was all Donatello heard before the line went dead.

"Mikey!" he shouted into the phone, wide eyed and distressed. He knew that voice anywhere. Don forced his shaking body to run back to their sewer home, open the door and enter into what would be called the living room.

This was where Mikey should be. But all that was left of his baby brother was a torn up comic book and a TV set crackling with white noise.

"Where's Mikey?" asked Donny to no one and anyone. A voice in the darkness answered.

"Him and his dumb comic books and dumb movies were gettin' on my nerves," said Raph who'd been sitting in the kitchen.

"What happened Raph?" questioned Donny holding up the torn comic book. 'The Flash' volume #123 – Mikey's favourite.

"It's just a cheap freakin' comic book for god's sake," shouted back Raphael, obviously in one of his tempers. "Mikey has to grow up and stop acting like a little kid." With that statement Raph left the room, banging every door possible on the way out.

Donny wasn't listening; his logical brain was working overtime. Michelangelo and Raphael's fight must have happened earlier in the evening because otherwise Raph would have still been in the gym taking out his anger on a punching bag or two. Besides, Donatello knew that Mikey wouldn't just call him about an everyday fight with Raph. Donatello guessed that Mikey must have gone to the surface to clear his head.

Something must have happened to him above ground. There was no time to waste on his argumentative older brothers that night. Donny grabbed his duffel bag of tricks and ran in his baby brother's footsteps.


	3. Chapter 3

(Thank you 'Heather for your lovely comments, I dedicate this chapter to you.)

Donatello used a signal tracking device to find where Mikey had been when he had made the phone call about 30 minutes earlier. As Don had suspected, Mickey was nowhere to be found and only a smashed up ShellCell covered in 'Angry Bird' stickers gave any indication that the fun-loving turtle had been here at all.

Don inspected the cell phone with his surgeon's tweezers. It had been crushed so forcefully that parts of it had been disintegrated into dust. The circuit board and memory chip had both been shattered so there was no way to fix it and recover any useful data. However, Donatello's sharp eyes did detect something in between the cracked tarmac slabs.

It was a shard of metal. It wasn't from the shattered ShellCell, the metals were very different and some blue paint had been scraped off onto the ground where the mysterious shard lay. Obviously, something had hit the ground hard; something big and powerful. Donatello carefully put the shard into a plastic pill container, put it in his duffel bag and continued searching for clues. Just five feet away there was further evidence of damage. More blue paint and metal splinters lay in a hollowed out area. It was as if something metallic had punched the ground. Don felt his stomach lurch: partly because of his sickness and partly because he knew something monstrous had literally gotten hold of Mikey.

Wait, if this thing was made of metal and was able to move, it must be giving off some kind of signature. Donny held up his tracking device and twiddled the dials, searching all channels for any disturbances. Almost immediately it picked up on something, Donny zoned in on it until it made a loud beeping noise. 'Okay, time to find out where it's coming from.'

'What, that can't be right.' The signal was coming from…. As Donny looked upwards, a dark silhouette enveloped him. He only just rolled out of the way when a metal monstrosity came crashing down to earth. Before Donny could run to a more advantageous position, he felt a pulsing shock that glued him to where he stood. Whatever it was, was sending an electronic shock wave through the ground and it had Donatello in its grasp.

Donny's head felt like he was going to explode, he couldn't breathe properly and worst of all he couldn't get away. He mustered all of his mental strength and tried to picture his family to calm him down. When he looked around for inspiration, he spied a still form in the giant fist of the metallic form.

"Mikey?" Donny hissed through the electric shocks. There was the crumpled form of his little brother, shallow breaths and a deep head wound that was bleeding profusely. Donny had never felt as helpless as he did at that moment; his ailing body, slowly dying from the electricity coursing through his veins.

'How ironic,' thought Donatello bitterly. The thing that made all of his genius a reality was the thing stopping him from saving his brother.

Donatello had always taken care of Mikey from as far back as he could remember. Mikey needed guidance and knowledge and in return he had given Donatello laughter and a soul. Of course, Donatello loved his older brothers just as much and would do anything for them but with Mikey, he felt a real sense of responsibility. Leo was the leader, and when he left for South America, it was up to Donny to take care of everyone. Raph was a loner and treated Donatello like the new, but less-abled, Leonardo. Mikey was different, he was the only one who openly acknowledged that he needed Donatello.

With all this running through his mind, Donatello somehow found the strength to throw his bo staff at the head of the robot. With a stunned yelping sound it backed up for a second, releasing its hold on Donatello. Donny didn't waste a second. In two leaps he had picked up his bo staff again and knocked the giant robot in the knee. It yelped again and started to back away.

Donatello was confused by its behaviour. It was built like an animated human but its actions were more like that of an animal. It was demonstrating the traditional fight or flight behaviour of a scavenger.

Whatever. What it was didn't matter right now; Donatello followed the animalistic machine down a flooded back alley until it suddenly decided to climb the wall of a decaying skyscraper.

'Oh great,' swore Donatello under his breath. His body was starting to shut down on him. He didn't know how much longer he could go without passing out. His vision was starting to go blurry and his hands were starting to shake: classic flu and fever symptoms. It was still raining slightly and Don could swear that the water was sizzling and turning into steam as it touched his body.

Donatello gave himself a mental slap in the face as he hopped up the balconies, one by one, in pursuit of the giant mechanical device that had his little brother. Though scared and physically weak, Donatello was the strongest and bravest turtle this night.


End file.
